and hoping nobody will force them to.

And the sad thing is, probably no one will.

Or "we don't care enough to do it"

They could, they just don't want to. The reality is the Uber driver dropping someone off doesn't think twice about pulling into a bike lane and blocking a main road with the 4 ways.

This is one of those things that exposes the fact that almost no driver drives to the letter of the law and in fact break the traffic laws pretty often.

I agree with the sentiment, but friendly reminder: there is no such thing as a "car lane." There are bus-only lanes and there are bike-only lanes, where cars are not allowed, but the other lanes are "general-purpose lanes" and are not for the exclusive use of cars. Buses and bikes are welcome there too.

It's an easy slip to make because it's conveniently short, but "car lane" is car-centric loaded language and we shouldn't cede that framing of the debate to the car-brains.

How many lawsuits from run over cyclists is it gonna take?

That's what it needs to be. But the reality is the entire point of AVs is to remove people from the expense report.

I wonder if the cars detect a flat or if they keep driving with one, or more...

they dont need to exist.

I don't think that's how it works. Decision-makers are rarely that principled. Instead, it'll just part of the downsides "everyone needs to accept" as a tradeoff for this "inevitable technological progress".

Kranzberg's "laws" of technology would like to say something here, but decision-makers can't hear them over all the lobybing.